Well, my summer break has already come and gone and I'm back on contract for work, although this week isn't too bad because we get to work virtually from home.
I sure packed a lot in during my 4 weeks off. I spent 2 entire weeks at the beach, basically.
One of the beaches I went to was Popham Beach, Maine. Nick's stepmom's family owns a cottage on the beach up there and his dad and stepmom invited us to come. I had never been to Maine before, so I jumped at the opportunity. Nick was wishy-washy at first about going, but I was like, oh, we're GOING. We both had the money and time off, so why not? We actually had a little hiccup getting to Maine as our flight was delayed by 2 hours due to a "mechanical issue" with the plane. We had actually already boarded the plane and had to get off! I wanted to get lunch while we had the time, but no, Nick wanted to get drinks (it was $30 for 2, yes 2, drinks). By the time we ordered subs for lunch, our flight was boarding! We literally had to throw our sandwiches away. People tell us we could have taken the sandwiches onto the plane, but there's no way I could have eaten a sloppy sub sandwich on the plane. Had we not gotten drinks, we would have had time to eat lunch. So instead, we didn't eat all day that day. We had breakfast at 6 am and didn't eat again until 5 pm. Nick and I did bicker a little bit once we did land in Maine, but I blame that entirely on both of us being hangry. Extremely hangry! It was all remedied when I had the most amazing Reuben sandwich and fries at a restaurant Nick's dad and stepmom took us to on the way to the cottage.
The cottage we stayed in is right on the ocean and it was built by Nick's stepmom's family in 1941. It has been passed down through the years and now Nick's stepmom is an owner along with several of her other family members. I think she said she owns 1/24th of it, which allows her to rent it out for a week every other year. The family rents the cottage out to strangers (for a grand $4500 per week), but the yearly taxes and insurance on it are so expensive, that the family members still have to pay when they stay in it to generate enough money to cover the taxes and insurance. The family rate is $800 per week. The "cottage" was pretty big - it has 2 stories and 4 bedrooms, one king (master), one queen, 4 bunk beds, and 2 twin beds. Nick and I slept in the twin bedroom and just pushed the twin beds together (which essentially makes a king-sized bed). The cottage had a cozy feel as most of the inside is wood-the walls, the floor, the ceiling. It has a huge, wrap-around deck on the back facing the ocean and the master bedroom upstairs e en has its own private deck. Nice!
Maine is much cooler than the south, I'll tell you that! I enjoyed not sweating to death all day. The temperature was mostly in the 60s/70s while we were there. I saw people bundled up in long jeans, long shirts, jackets, etc. Umm, no, I wore t-shirts and shorts the entire time. I loved the cooler weather! One thing that is much cooler up there is the ocean - it was FREEZING! Even so, I still waded in up to my waist. Nick took to it like an arctic seal and fully submerged. He was diving, jumping, splashing, and cutting flips. It was so cute to see him so happy and excited about something. He hasn't been on a true vacation in a few years, so he really needed this. Speaking of seals, we saw actual seals swim by. They were so cute!
While we were there, we took walks on the beach each morning. Nick's dad is 54 and his stepmom is 69, and boy are they are some fit people. They both retired last year. Yes, both of them. Nick's stepmom has a math degree from Duke and apparently invested well over the years, so they had enough money for both of them to retire when the pandemic started last year. Nick's dad is an expert at cars and was working as a service advisor when he retired. Nick's stepmom was a high-level statistical editor. Anyways, they've always been healthy people, but they've become even more so since they retired. They are very into getting their exercise by walking for at least an hour every day and by eating very healthy (salads, yogurt, oatmeal, salmon, etc.). I could barely keep up with them on our beach walks! I always realize how out of shape I am when I'm around them. I also feel ashamed because I'm only 32 and I'm being outwalked by people much older than me! Of course, my right leg had to start acting up when walking on the beach. For reasons unknown to me, my ankle began to hurt and it sent shooting pains up my leg to my knee. I tried walking barefoot, with tennis shoes, and with flip flops, and no matter what, my right leg was in agony. No idea why. When we would walk anywhere else, my leg didn't hurt at all. So, that didn't help me keep up with them, having a gimped-up leg. I guess that's what can happen when you go from walking 0 miles per day to suddenly walking 4 miles per day. It was just embarrassing, obviously struggling to keep up with these much older people. I was actually relieved when Nick's grandmother, who is 74, showed up a few days after us. She is also pretty fit but recently suffered a fall that has left her with a sore leg, so she can't walk as fast or as much as she used to. So yes, Nick's 74-year-old grandmother was my walking partner because we were both slow and gimped up.
On one of our walks, we walked to Fort Popham, at the end of the beach. It's an old, Civil War-era fort at the mouth of the Kennebec River that you can look around. It was never actually bombed or anything, but it was built "just in case". So that was pretty neat to walk around and explore. On another walk, we walked to this rock island at the other end of the beach that's only accessible at low tide. We literally climbed to the top of this rock island. I was being careful not to fall into a crevice or slip, and Nick was running and jumping all around that thing like a mountain goat. Nick's stepmom was also traversing this island with ease in flip-flops!! I was, once again, reminded how big, fat, and out of shape I am. lol. I got cool pics, though.
We went into the town of Portland and had lobster rolls. I got the classic roll with melted butter and Nick got the one that's served cold and has mayo. Delicious! Nick asked to add cheese to his and you should have seen the poor waitress's face. It was clear no one had ever asked to add cheese to their lobster roll before. Leave it to a southerner. (Although, technically, Nick and his whole fam are from Chicago...he has lived in the south since age 12 tho).
We also checked out the town of Bath, which I really liked! They had a quaint little Main Street with fun shops. I bought a canvas bag that has rope handles and a lobster print on it. I just had to have it as the lobster just screams "Maine"! Since Nick basically has a honing device for breweries, we also checked out Bath Brewing. We had a nice time until we witnessed some weird man request to speak to the chef. The chef came out and listened to the man until the man apparently insulted him. The chef literally shouted, "Don't you curse at me! Do NOT curse at me!" in front of everyone. The man was literally complaining about - get ready - a wedge salad. Get a life! I also found a shop where I got magnets for my mom and sisters. That was a nice time.
I also got to experience a homemade lobster dinner. We actually went to a place and picked out the lobsters we wanted for our dinner. I felt very bad for the lobsters. We literally plucked them out of their aquarium and sentenced them to die. When we got back to the cottage, Nick's dad dumped them out of the bags onto the deck. The poor lobsters just sat there and didn't even move! Did they know death was coming? What was really sad is that the ocean, their home, was a mere 100 feet away! They could have scuddled down the deck steps onto the beach and escaped into the ocean, but no, they just sat there! I even pet one and looked into its little lobster eyes. I felt really bad about eating them, seeing them alive. It makes you think twice about eating other animals when you see them alive! Nick watched as his dad put them in the pot of boiling water and he said he literally saw their eyes change - like change from black to white. Noooooo!!!! I wish he had never told me that. Did I still eat my lobster? Yes. Nick's dad steamed them with actual ocean water - he and Nick literally went down to the ocean and filled their pots with ocean water. I would maybe not do that next time because I did taste grains of sand when I ate my lobster. Other than that, the lobster turned out beautifully - a bright red with tender meat. We had it with corn on the cob and asparagus and lots of melted butter.
Another fun moment was that we watched the movie A Message in a Bottle. Corny, yes, but we watched it because several scenes from the movie had been filmed in our exact location on Popham Beach. We had fun shouting out locations we recognized during the movie.
The one thing I did NOT care for about Maine is the mosquitos and biting black flies! I did not expect a state so much farther north than where I live to have worse bugs! I came back home covered in itchy bites. The black flies really hurt when they bite, too. One literally made me bleed!
10:03 a.m. - Wednesday, Aug. 04, 2021
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